Idea: Using home designer software...

[Janik]

Hi,

I just wanted to float a little idea I had recently: it seems that a common problem in making backgrounds is getting the perspective right. So, how about using one of the home design programs as a base? There are programs like 3d Home Architect (or there may be newer versions with different names), wherein you place walls and furniture and you can do a 3D render. Using the render as the base on which to draw your background, you'd be assured to get perfect perspective.

Plus, this could be a good tool to make a reasonable layout of interior scenes. And if a piece of furniture/object/etc. is not available in the program, well you can just draw it in.

I hope this helps some people

[MrColossal]

If you could provide some freeware links it'd help more people!

Know of any?

[Janik]

I'll hunt around for some freeware - there may not be any

This is what I found - some are very expensive (100$+) but decent-looking programs are available for much cheaper:

This one seems to cost 10 pounds:
http://www.focusmm.co.uk/store/productpages/productinfo/ess567.html

This one looks like a website with subscription access:
http://www.plan3d.com/pages/home.aspx

Some older software here sells for 5$:
http://www.5dollarsoftware.com/homeandleisure.html

This very old program is free, but no furniture
http://www.freecadapps.com/swdetails.php?page=category&value=OCD-OCD&orgvalue=OCD&review=2003&rowcolor=fce08d

And there's always ebay - old versions of 3D Home architect and the like go for very low prices, and there looks like there are many many available. I have an old version of 3D Home Architect and it's fine for this purpose. Anything with 3D and some basic furniture works, the newer stuff with 10000 pieces of furniture is just superfluous.

And hey, once you're done, you can even use it to help place furniture in your own home! 

[Andail]

Starting threads in this forum is only for publishing stuff.

[Janik]

I thought that the critics lounge was most appropriate, but oh well.

Here's a screenshot from one of these programs to show what I meant:

This is from 3D Home Architect 5.

[Darth Mandarb]

I think it's a great idea!

We had Neil Nduma as our background artist for a bit (on Amulet of Kings) ... he used a similar technique.  He used a high end 3D program (I believe it was MAX) to rough-in the scene and place light sources.  Then he pixelled over it in Photoshop.

I still prefer pixel by pixel myself ... but this'd be really helpful for the people who don't have the patience for that

[Mordalles]

yeah, thats exactly what i did for "mordy on holiday". i also used max to do a rough layout of each background, and then i painted over it in photoshop. it helps with perspective, aswell as shadows.